Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari has taken an initiative to develop indigenous and apt technologies to bring down the cost of construction and reduce the construction period of Road/Bridge/Tunnel projects and to fulfil this objective the expertise available in the country with Research Institutes and Academia is being harnessed.

In this direction, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 22 January 2021, in New Delhi for the continuation of MoRTH Professorial Chair focusing on research and development, teaching and training in the area of Development of Highway Infrastructure.

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Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Roorkee is among the foremost of institutes of national importance in higher technological education and in engineering, basic and applied research. Since its establishment, the Institute has played a vital role in providing the technical manpower and know-how to the country and in pursuit of research.

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), Government of India is responsible for the development and maintenance of National Highways across the country.

It has been agreed by both the organizations to continue the MoRTH Professorial Chair at IIT-Roorkee to provide leadership in one, or many, of the following areas:

(i)          To act as an ambassador of the MoRTH for highway development in the country.

(ii)         To catalyse innovation, research and development in the highway sector in IIT-Roorkee and Indian academia.

(iii)        To facilitate or undertake highway studies in IIT-Roorkee and Indian academia on the environment and social impacts of highway development projects.

(iv)        To facilitate or undertake dissemination of technology upgrades in planning, design, construction and operation & maintenance for highway development through standards, guidelines, seminars, training and user manuals etc.

(v)         To help find solutions to the practical problems of highway through scientific research by facilitating the partnership of MoRTH with IIT-Roorkee and Indian academia.

(vi)        To utilize and expand the Highway Engineering related resources in IITR and other educational institutions working on highways and all related aspects.

(vii)       Any other related activity.

This collaboration of MoRTH with IIT-Roorkee will strengthen R&D activities in Road Sector and the Chair professor is expected to provide leadership in conducting and coordinating research, development and teaching in the area of Development of Highway Infrastructure.